Where The Grass Is Always Greener

 

                                                                         

                                                Where The Grass is Always Greener 

                                                                         By

                                    

                                                                 Dennis Welton 

On the edge of a quiet west Texas town, among the dry hills, lived a horse named Dusty. He belonged to a small family ranch where life was simple and steady. Fresh hay in the morning, cool water from the trough at noon, and a gentle brushing with his grain in the evening. But no matter how good things were inside his fenced pasture, he was always looking longingly beyond the barbed wire. Every morning, he would wander to the edges of the pasture and with his neck stretched as far as it would go, try to nibble at the grass just on the other side. To him, it always seemed that the grass on the other side was greener, fresher and more exciting.

One afternoon, after a gentle rain had softened the ground, Dusty saw his chance. A spot along the fence looked just loose enough that he could push through. Driven by that longing for "better," he pushed and pushed on the old fence until he managed to slip through.

On the other side, he found what he was looking for: a patch of thick green grass swaying in the breeze. He munched and munched, feeling like he had won a prize. But the victory was short-lived. The fence was easy to slip through one way, but the muddy slope on the other side made it hard to return to his pasture. As Dusty trotted deeper into unfamiliar territory, he got tangled in another fence line, this one older and much sharper. He became tangled up in the rusty wire and cut his leg trying to back out. Alone and hurt, Dusty lay down under the open sky, realizing that the “greener grass” he had longed for had come at a steep price.

Hours later, young Ellie Walker found him. She had tears in her eyes and a lead rope in her hands as she gently calmed him. With help from her father, they got Dusty home. He limped around painfully for weeks. The wound finally healed, but the lesson he had learned went much deeper.

From then on, Dusty still gazed beyond the fence, but now with much wiser eyes. He realized that what he longed for had never truly been better than what he already had. It was just different, and as he found out, dangerous. He now found joy in his own pasture where he had the cool shade of the oak tree, the warmth of the sun on his back, and the gentle hands that cared for him each day.

 

♡ Life Lesson ♡

We often believe that happiness lies somewhere else. Across a fence, in someone else’s life, or in a future version of our own. But like Dusty, we often hurt ourselves chasing illusions, only to find that the true treasures were with us all along. Sometimes, that greener grass is just a trick of the light. True contentment isn’t found by reaching further, it’s found by seeing deeper.

Peace is often not where you’re not. It’s where you already are, if you only choose to see it.